Mascoutah, IllinoisMarch 1953

Insufficient Data

Summary

On March 28, 1953, at about 1430 (2:30 p.m.) Central time, a civilian reported an object near Mascoutah, Illinois, while driving east on Highway 15 about five miles east of town. The witness was a civilian worker from Scott Air Force Base. The report reached Scott Air Force Base.

The object looked like a dirigible flying just above the tree tops, dull silver in color and about 600 feet across. It moved slowly from south to north. When it reached the 12 o'clock position it changed course without turning and came toward the observer at terrific speed, then stopped and hovered about a half mile away for a few seconds. It then moved away, reaching about 20 miles away in seconds, slowly rolling, and disappeared into clouds.

The weather had scattered clouds at 25,000 feet. There was no air traffic reported. The intelligence officer noted the lone observer had a past record of nervous trouble, though he sounded reasonable. The Air Force concluded the cause was a mirage.

Reported location

Mascoutah, Illinois

Date of incident

March 1953

State / country

IL / US

Page count

5 scanned pages

USAF evaluation

unknown

Microfilm

T1206, Roll 18

’ . I. DATE - TIME GROUP 2. LOCATION 28 larch 53 28/007 lageoutah, Illisols | 3. SOURCE 10. CONCLUSION Unlmomm LL AGD 4. NUMBER OF OBJECTS TRENT. ™ erg “, oy wt, a Se Seon ot ee 1 Ye at, i oO *“) YR) 85 Loire 3e Ora 4 S. LENGTH OF OBSERVATION 1%. BRIEF SUMMARY AND ANALYSIS | lot Reported Dirigible type object appeared 0 rive across ror row | Inpge, then reverse and disappear nt a high rate of spred. | 6. TYPE OF OBSERVATION Object ns Sool aon: c 1? 3. Je Poo £8 5) u Color, oul eVisual : 7. COURSE | Nob Teported ; 8. PHOTOS o Yes CL. Neo : 9. PHYSICAL EVIDENCE 0 Yes ) No FORM : : FTD sep 63 0-329 (TDE) previous editions of this form may be used.